Tag Archives: quick and easy recipe

I’m trying to reduce the amount of wheat I send in my kids’ lunches. While I’ve always tried to include milk and a vegetable, reducing the wheat is even more of a challenge, because it affects the easy sandwich. While I can use gluten free bread, I’m also trying to be a bit more creative and up the protein quotient.

Here are the parameters I set when packing school lunches:

No peanuts (although my kids aren’t allergic, there are kids in their school with life-threatening allergies to peanuts and I don’t believe that peanuts have any place in schools where this is the case.)

Must include milk

Must include a vegetable and a fruit

Must include a protein

Something sweet is nice to end the meal with

I have plastic sandwich boxes for each of the kids (no waste) and last year I purchased silicon cupcake cups by Wilton that fit inside the sandwich boxes and serve as flexible partitions for various foods. I also have a few convenience products for the sweet/fruit component of my kids’ lunches, but they are all organic and pure.

Sometimes I don’t have time to make lunch. And my kids think these GoPicnic gluten free lunch boxes are a real treat. They only get them for special occasions (they’re $4 a pop). I also give them a choice between buying pizza lunch at school on Fridays or a GoPicnic box. They choose this about 50% of the time. These are their favorite flavors:

Now obviously some of these lunches (but not all!) require some forethought. I tend to cook up a large batch of pumpkin waffles or french toast and chicken nuggets on the weekend, and freeze some for lunches for the week. Pizza bagels can be made in the toaster oven in the morning.

Occasionally I like to have a treat waiting for my kids when they get off the school bus. I don’t think there’s much more inviting than walking into the house after a long day and smelling fresh-baked cookies coming out of the oven.

But with this new eating plan, I’ve been trying to cut back on the wheat and sugar for them, as well as me. That makes cookie baking a bit more challenging.

I’ve been working on this cookie recipe for a while. At first, they were too soft…almost like cake. But I finally perfected it. They’re not TOO sweet, have a nice crunch, and are absolutely delicious. I hope your kids enjoy them as much as mine do!

This week I’ve been exploring some new recipes from some of my favorite food bloggers. All of them are gluten and refined-sugar free. I wanted to share some of these fantastic recipes with you today. Enjoy!

Slow-Cooked Coconut Ginger Pork: The juice this dish produces in the crockpot will blow your mind. It is so succulent. About 30 minutes before it was done cooking, I threw in some baby spinach and sliced carrots which added a nice nutritional punch, plus some color. If you do grains, you could serve it over rice. Otherwise serve it in a bowl. You’ll want to drink the liquid for sure!

Rosemary Spaghetti Squash Egg Nests: I’m realizing that I have quite a few vegetables I’ve avoided over the years because of some less than pleasant early experiences with them as a child. Spaghetti squash was one of them. However when I saw this recipe from the Urban Poser, I knew I needed to give it another chance. I am SO glad I did. This is awesome, and quite filling. One is more than enough to fill you. Next time I make it I’ll prepare the nests ahead of time, and then I can cook them with the egg inside when I’m ready, and I can keep the yolks gooey (they cooked solid before the nests were done.) This makes a great breakfast or even dinner.

Red Chicken Coconut Curry: OK, this one is one of mine. But it’s a meal that comes together SO quickly, that I had to include it. In 20 minutes, dinner is done!

Blueberry Pumpkin Pie Protein Shake: It’s pumpkin pie in a glass. No lie. I’m not even all that big a fan of pumpkin pie, but I LOVE this shake. And the best part is that it leaves me full and totally energized all morning.

Coconut Cream Pie Larabar Recipe: I’m a big fan of Kind bars, and typically prefer them to Larabars. But when I was in the grocery store this week I was starving and saw these in the checkout line so I picked one up. TOTAL yum! Because I don’t love the price on any of these bars I quickly looked up a recipe on how to make them at home. This one is great.

Cinnamon Bun Muffins: This is the first recipe I ever made from the Elana’s Pantry food blog, and it’s still one of my favorites. (I replace the agave with 100% pure maple syrup.) Make them. You can thank me later!

Do you have some favorite gluten and refined-sugar free recipes? Please share them in the comments!

Do you have a vegetable you’re afraid of? Something you had an unfortunate experience with early on that completely turned you off to the whole institution? There are only a select few like that for me, and beets were near the top of the list.

If memory serves, I’m fairly certain the beets I was exposed to were pickled beets out of a can. I loathed them.

But recently I’ve been seeing more and more recipes with beets, and the nutritional benefits are huge. And I do believe that any vegetable can taste good if cooked properly. So I decided this weekend to pick up a bunch of organic beets, and give it a go.

Beets and their greens

I scrubbed them clean, cut off the greens (and reserved them in a glass of water), and cut them down to a relatively uniform size.

Next I put them in a foil pack with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

I sealed up the edges of the foil and roasted them in a 375 degree F oven for about 45 minutes. Basically, you roast them until you can easily spear them with a fork.

Once they’re done, let them cool enough to handle and then slide the skins off. I didn’t take a picture of this step (because my hands were full of purple beet juice!)

When you’re done, you’ll have a lovely plate of roasted beets. You can eat them like this, or use them in recipes like the Roasted Beets and Beet Greens with Dates and Goat Cheese recipe I’m sharing with you today.

Roasted Beets and Beet Greens with Dates and Goat CheeseServes 2 as a side dish

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 sliced onion

2 roasted beets, sliced

1 bunch beet greens, stemmed and chopped into 3-inch pieces

8 dates, sliced

Salt & Pepper, to taste

1 oz goat cheese

Here’s What To Do:

Heat some olive oil over low heat in a frying pan. Add the sliced onion and saute about 5 minutes until carmelized and soft.

Add the roasted beet slices, beet greens, and sliced dates, and cook until greens are wilted.

Add salt & pepper to taste.

Remove from heat and add goat cheese. Stir gently.

Serve.

The Verdict: This was a lovely dish that convinced even this non-beet eater that beets can taste good. I think the sweetness of the dates and carmelized onions worked perfectly with the beets and greens, and the goat cheese added a perfect note to the overall dish. Thanks to this, I would make beets again!

What’s your favorite way to enjoy beets? Would love to learn about your favorite recipes in the comments below!

When I think of the word “hash” I hearken back to pink stuff that came out of a can with teeny tiny cubes of what I think were potatoes that my mother used to serve with eggs. Yeah…this isn’t that.

I love sweet potatoes. They’re delicious all by themselves. But they are also fantastic as a base for this delicious breakfast dish (that actually could be served at any time of day.)

I also have a bit of a problem when it comes to black beans. We buy cans of black beans by the case (yes I know I could do it with dry beans in my crockpot, but I haven’t gotten myself together enough to do that and properly store them.) I love that they are an amazing protein source that all of my kids will eat and be happy about it.

So it was a natural thing to bring sweet potatoes and black beans together for this dish. Then in keeping with my desire to add as many veggies to each dish as possible I threw some more in. The result was an absolutely beautiful (and totally delicious) hash that I think you’ll love. Enjoy!

I originally gave up bread and refined sugar to lose weight. (Then I started reading…darn the internet!) Since this was (at least originally) primarily about weight loss (and then maintenance) for me, I keep a close eye on the scale. And I find I do best when I make vegetables the foundational element in my diet. Now this doesn’t mean eating salad all the time. But it does mean that I try to incorporate vegetables in all 3 meals a day. In doing so, I get more nutrition, and I find that my weight remains stable.

But wait! you may be saying. Veggies for breakfast? Really? Yep. There are 2 primary ways I do it.

Eggs and Omelettes. This is the easy one. Our favorite omelet is mushrooms, asparagus, spinach, and some cheese. Sometimes I’ll throw in tomatoes.

Smoothies. I giggle inside a little when my son automatically reaches for the baby spinach in the fridge when making his own smoothies. Fruit-based smoothies can include spinach and carrots and, if you use blueberries, you’ll never know they’re there!

I’ve also been known to do a soup for breakfast of broth and veggies. You can throw in rice, protein of your choice, or drizzle in a scrambled egg. If you like things spicy, adding some kimchi is delicious too (and you won’t be able to eat too fast, which ensures you’ll stop when you’re full.)

Here’s a quick and easy recipe full of veggies that my husband RAVED about when I made it. (And don’t let the word “curry” scare you. It’s not spicy at all!) His exact words were “It’s so buttery!” And there’s no butter in it at all!

Red Chicken Coconut Curry

Red Chicken Coconut CurryThis made enough for lunch for 2 adults.

Ingredients

4 oz. raw chicken, cut into strips or bite-sized pieces

Salt & pepper (or all purpose seasoning of choice)

1 clove garlic

coconut oil

1/2 can full fat coconut milk

1 Tbsp red curry paste (have I mentioned yet how addicted I am to this stuff?)

1 cup cauliflower florettes

1/2 cup sliced carrots

1 cup prepared brown rice

1 big handful spinach

Here’s What To Do

Season the chicken with salt and pepper, or seasoning blend of your choice.

In a saucepan, heat the coconut oil over medium heat.

Press the garlic clove into the oil.

Add the chicken slices and cook until browned on each side.

Add the cauliflower and carrots, and cook for 3 minutes.

Add the coconut milk and red curry paste, and stir gently until well combined.

Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add brown rice and cook for another minute.

Remove from heat and stir in spinach. Stir until just wilted.

Serve!

How do you incorporate veggies into your meals? Please share in the comments!

About Me

Jennifer Fong is the Founder and CEO of Jen Fong Media, a full service digital marketing firm that helps direct selling companies, businesses, service providers and non-profits reach the people online who can help their organizations grow. We believe in marketing with integrity, building the relationships that matter and approaching marketing from a standpoint of service. For information on how Jen Fong Media can help your organization, please visit us online at http://jenfongmedia.com.